Basic Education Rights Handbook – Education Rights in ...

36 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

CFBHEAUPATDENRS2UIDCCIANTGION Daniel McLaren

Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

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INTRODUCTION

This chapter will provide an overview of how public schools are funded in South Africa, and what the challenges and opportunities are for parents, teachers and learners to ensure that this funding goes as far as possible to secure the right to a basic education for all.

It has been designed to help those working with or who have an interest in education funding to understand the education budget process, and advocate for changes that will promote the right to basic education.

Equal access to education is critical for ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to participate equally in society and fulfil their potential. The Constitution of South Africa guarantees everyone access to basic education; and ensuring that basic education is adequately and equitably funded by the state has been prioritised since the democratic transition, in order to promote more equal access to quality teaching and learning.

The apartheid government that ruled South Africa until 1994 was well aware of the power of education and the fundamental role that access to quality education could play in the development of a country. Yet the racial, gender and class bias of that government meant that it supported

the provision of quality education for only a minority of the population. Black, coloured, Indian and Asian South Africans, as well as women and the disabled, received an inferior basic education to that provided to whites.

This discrimination was especially evident in the highly inequitable resource allocations that were provided to schools according to their racial classification. By providing as much as ten times more funding to white schools than black schools, the previous government ensured that economic and social opportunity would be prescribed based on one's race, gender or class. The effects of these policies continue to hamper the provision of equal education today.

Education takes place over many years, and is a cross-generational exercise involving learners, teachers and parents, so the inferior education provided to the majority of people until 1994 continues to reproduce unequal outcomes. This can be seen in the legacies of substandard infrastructure and teacher subject

knowledge, lower scores, and higher dropout rates at historically black schools.

The post-apartheid democratic administration inherited a segregated education system based on a highly inequitable funding model designed specifically to promote certain groups over others. The question of equalising resource allocations and ensuring economic access to a quality education for all has been at the centre of debate on how to overcome the legacies of the past, and ? as the 1995 White Paper on Education and Training promised ? `open the doors of learning and culture to all'.

The policy guidelines adopted at the 1992 National Conference of the ANC and published in `Ready to Govern' committed the ANC government-in-waiting to `equalising the per capita expenditure between black and white education', and ensuring that `resources are redistributed to the most disadvantaged sectors of our society, in particular, women, rural and adult students, and mentally or physically disabled children and adults'.

The remainder of this chapter explains the choices that were subsequently made and enacted into law since 1994, and the funding model that was adopted to ensure the constitutional guarantee of a quality basic education for all.

38 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

ECONOMIC

HUMAN RIGHTS

In South Africa, the key principles, roles and responsibilities underpinning budget process are set out in the Constitution. These include: ?? public

participation ?? transparency ?? equity ?? accountability

POLITICAL

ADMINISTRATIVE

THE BUDGET PROCESS

Public education, which accounts for 95% of all education provided in South Africa, is funded by the government budget. Some public schools are able to supplement this funding by charging fees. This section will explain:

? What a constitutional approach to public-school funding requires

? The budget process in South Africa, including the main stakeholders involved, key documents produced, and a timeline of the basic education budget process and where the public can provide input

? How revenue is raised for the government to spend on providing basic education

? How revenue raised nationally is divided between the three spheres of government: national, provincial and local

? The national equitable share,

including conditional grants ? The provincial equitable share ? The determination of each

province's equitable share of the provincial sphere's share of revenue, including whether the formula used to determine this share is indeed equitable.

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A CONSTITUTIONAL APPROACH TO PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING Chapter 1 of this book spoke at length about the right to basic education in the Constitution. A summary of the constitutional approach to basic education funding can be seen in Table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1: A summary of the constitutional approach to basic education funding.

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION REQUIRES

Universal Access

Everyone has the right to a basic education.

Adequacy and Quality

Substantive Equality and Redress

The right to basic education is the right to an education of an adequate quality.

Education of an adequate quality must be provided and made available and accessible to all.

Priority

Basic education of an adequate quality must be provided and made available to all immediately.

Efficiency and effectiveness

Resources allocated to public schools and basic education more broadly must be used as efficiently and effectively as possible to achieve their intended aims.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SCHOOL FUNDING POLICY

? No-one may be denied access to education on any ground. ? Basic education must be physically and economically accessible to all. ? Physical access means that schools must be within a reasonable distance

of learners, and transport must be available, at the state's expense, to carry learners who live beyond a reasonable distance to the nearest school ? Economic access means that no-one may be denied access to a public school due to an inability to pay fees or to pay for basic school supplies.

? Resources ? which are sufficient to ensure high levels of quality throughout the basic education system ? must be raised and invested by the state.

? This includes that all educational infrastructure and goods, and teacher training and development, must be adequate to meet the needs of teachers and learners.

A progressive funding model must be in place which ensures that: ? all schools have the resources necessary to provide a quality basic education ? schools that were underfunded in the past must receive relatively more

resources from the state than schools that were well funded during apartheid, in order to rectify past funding imbalances and ensure substantive equality ? under-performing schools must receive funding which, in conjunction with other reforms, is sufficient to bring them up to standard.

? Ensuring equal access to quality basic education must be treated as a priority in government budgets.

? A lack of available resources cannot be a justifiable reason for the state failing to provide a quality basic education.

? Schools (including their teachers, learners and parents) who feel that the quality of education being provided is being limited by a lack of resources can claim more resources from the state, and sue the state for more resources if necessary.

? Teachers, learners and parents can also sue their school or their provincial government if the resources that are being made available to the school are being misused, or otherwise inefficiently or ineffectively used towards providing quality basic education.

THE BUDGET PROCESS IN SOUTH AFRICA Every year in late February, the Minister of Finance delivers the budget speech in

the National Assembly. This important speech sets out the government's revenue and spending plans, and key financial and performance targets, for the next

financial year (1 April to 31 March). The budget process that ultimately leads

to this speech is complex; and to the outside observer, can appear rather opaque and

40 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

confusing, too. At any one time throughout the year, there are a variety of budgets under consideration by a number of stakeholders, who all have different roles to play.

This section will describe the key stakeholders, documents and stages involved in the budget process, focusing on how these ultimately contribute to the development of a basic education budget that is managed and spent at national, provincial and school level. Throughout, I will highlight points at which the public can provide input into this process in order to advance and protect their right to education.

THE PRINCIPLES AND FUNCTIONS UNDERPINNING THE BUDGET PROCESS Budgeting is one of the most important tasks carried out by government. This is because without adequate funding, even the best policies and plans will be hard to implement successfully.

Budgeting is a political, economic, administrative and human-rights-based process. Political in the sense that it entails competition among various groups for limited resources. Economic in the sense that the budget is the government's most important economic tool for setting the direction of the economy, and for allocating resources within the economy. The budget process is also a vital administrative process, because it is central to the purposes of planning, coordinating, controlling and evaluating the activities of government. Finally, government budgeting is also a human-rights process, in that the ultimate goal of the budget is to raise and allocate funds in a way that enables government to fulfil its constitutional and international human-rights obligations to people.

In South Africa, the key principles, roles and responsibilities underpinning

the budget process are set out in the Constitution. These include public participation, transparency, equity and accountability. I have noted above that substantive equality is a key goal and obligation under the Constitution. The budget plays a very important role in achieving this, and therefore must be judged by (among other factors) its impact on reducing and eliminating inequality in the country, including in relation to access to quality basic education.

Section 215(1) of the Constitution states that `National, provincial and municipal budgets and budgetary processes must promote transparency, accountability and effective financial management'. The principle of accountability applies to all government processes and is particularly important in the allocation and expenditure of government budgets.

All funds raised by the state are public funds, because they derive mainly from the taxes people pay. So the public are entitled to have a say in how these funds are allocated and spent, and must be able to hold officials accountable if these funds are not directed towards the public good, do not achieve their stated objectives, or are misspent or wasted by departments.

Public participation is regarded as a `basic value' in the Constitution, which requires in Section 195(e) that `people's needs must be responded to, and the public must be encouraged to participate in policymaking'.

The National Treasury's Budget Analysis Manual confirms this, by stating that:

Participation is an indispensable principle in the budget process. [...] and is likely to result in more equitable expenditure patterns than a process which is dominated by the powerful sectors of society. Effective participation can also serve to ensure efficient provision and more equitable distribution of budgetary allocations. Through active participation in the budget process, people

could challenge programmes or policies that are potentially threatening to the enjoyment and guarantee of constitutional rights.

But before public participation in the budget process can happen, there must also be transparency in the budget process.

Transparency and openness are also basic values of the Constitution, and require the government to take steps to ensure that information on the budget processes of national, provincial and local government is accessible and enables the public to engage with these processes.

For the past 10 years, South Africa has consistently been ranked among the top six countries in the world by the internationally recognised Open Budget Index (OBI) for the transparency of its budget process. This means that a large amount of information on the budget is made available by the National Treasury in a timely and accessible manner. Much of this information is published online at .za. All of the key budget documents mentioned in this chapter are available online.

Provincial Treasuries and local governments have a more mixed record in providing timely and upto-date information on their budget processes; sometimes documents are not made available online at all, and must be requested ? either from the provincial treasury or local government concerned, or from National Treasury.

No matter how much information is available, however, engaging with the budget process can be quite daunting at first. The remainder of this section will try to make engagement with the basic education budget process easier, by explaining the main stakeholders involved and the key documents produced in this process, and by showing when in the year key budget decisions are made, and how the public can provide input into these important decision-making processes.

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THE MAIN STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED AND KEY DOCUMENTS

PRODUCED IN THE BUDGET PROCESS (focusing on basic education)

Minister's Committee on the Budget (Mincombud)? a subcommittee of the Cabinet, Mincombud discusses the overall budget environment and advises Cabinet, which is responsible for the final approval of the budget.

National Treasury (NT)? led by the Minister of Finance, NT is responsible for managing the government's finances and the budget process. This includes advising Cabinet on the state of the economy and government finances, overseeing expenditure by national departments, and monitoring the implementation of provincial budgets. NT also develops a three-year Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the basis for discussions with departments, which in turn leads to the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), which is tabled at least three months before the budget speech and sets out the government's financial plans for the next three years. NT also issues guidelines for departments to complete their own MTEF and Estimates of Expenditure. Finally, NT prepares the Division of Revenue Bill, Appropriation Bill, Estimates of National Expenditure and Budget Review for presentation to parliament in the budget speech.

Provincial Treasuries? led by each province's MEC for Finance, provincial treasuries are responsible for managing provincial government finances and budget processes, including facilitating each province's MTBPS and the provincial budget, which includes an Appropriation Bill and Estimates of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure (EPRE). Provincial Treasuries also monitor and support the implementation of the provincial budget by provincial departments.

Medium Term Expenditure Committee (MTEC)? consists of senior officials from NT and other departments, including Basic Education. It is responsible for hearing and

scrutinising the budget submissions made by each department to ensure they are aligned to the Cabinet's policy and budgetary priorities. In addition, there are eight Formal Functional MTECs based on functional groupings known as `clusters', which also scrutinise and help departments develop budgets that are in harmony with the plans and priorities of other departments in that cluster.

10x10 working group on basic education ? the management and provision of basic education is a concurrent function, meaning that the implementation of basic education is carried out by the national Department of Basic Education together with (or concurrently with) provincial education departments. To ensure a cohesive planning and budgeting process, the 10x10 working group is convened by NT to bring the chief role players in national and provincial education departments together with national and provincial treasuries. The 10x10 group therefore includes the Minister of Basic Education and the nine provincial MECs for education, plus representatives from NT and the nine provincial treasuries ? hence the name of the group: `10x10'.

National Department of Basic Education (DBE)? led by the Minister of Basic Education, the DBE overseas the basic education sector as a whole, including the implementation of national legislation and regulations by provinces (including the National Norms and Standards for School Funding), and manages conditional grants to provinces together with NT. The DBE takes part in Mincombud, the MTECs and the 10x10 working group on basic education. Through these interactions, the DBE plays an important role in establishing the national education policy priorities, and therefore the outlines of the total national budget for basic education.

Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) ? led by each province's MEC for education,

PEDs oversee and manage the basic education system within their jurisdiction, including the provincial education budget. Provincial treasuries, together with PEDs, determine how much of their total provincial budget will be allocated to basic education. Following national guidelines, PEDs and Provincial Treasuries also decide the precise allocations to schools, and how the provincial education budget will be divided between personnel and nonpersonnel expenditures, as well as how much money will be allocated to other expenditures required for the provision of basic education such as the payment of teachers and the upgrading of infrastructure.

Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME)? located in the presidency, the DPME is responsible for planning and monitoring the implementation of national priority outcomes, as identified in the National Development Plan (NDP) and elaborated every five years in the Outcome Agreements of the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF). The DPME takes part in Mincombud, MTECs and 10x10 working groups, to ensure that the Outcome Agreement for basic education is reflected upon and given effect to in the budget process.

Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) ? the FFC is mandated by Chapter 13 of the Constitution to provide independent advice to government on financial and fiscal matters. The FFC conducts research and investigations into basic education budgeting and expenditure, and makes recommendations to National Treasury, MTEC, the 10x10 working-group members and Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Basic Education.

Parliamentary Committees in the National Assembly? consisting of 15-20 MPs broadly representative of the parties in the National Assembly, Parliamentary Committees monitor

42 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

the activities and budgets of national departments and hold them accountable. Committees also debate and provide input into the development of bills; and can receive petitions from members of the public, and often issue calls for comment by the public on proposed bills as well as issues relating to the budget. The committees therefore provide a platform for the public to put their views across directly to MPs. Three National Assembly committees are particularly important for the basic education budgeting process: ? The Portfolio Committee on Basic

Education oversees the activities, spending and budgeting of the DBE, and produces reports on the basic education budget for which the public can provide written or verbal input ? The Standing Committee on Finance oversees and holds NT accountable, and provides inputs into the budget process ? The Standing Committee on Appropriations primarily advises NT on the Appropriations Bill, including considering public comments.

Parliamentary Committees in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) play a similar role to the National Assembly committees, but at the provincial level. They are made up of provincial MPs and also hear public petitions and comments on the budget and proposed bills. The committees involved in the basic education budget process are the NCOP Education and Recreation, NCOP Finance and NCOP Appropriations.

Members of the public and civil society organisations can participate in various stages of the budget process, including by making petitions or submissions to many of the bodies listed above (see Figure 2.1, and next page).

Figure 2.1: Diagram of the budget process and main stakeholders

CABINET

MINCOMBUD

SARS

NATIONAL TREASURY

DBE

DPME

MTECs

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES

FFC 10 X 10s

EASTERN CAPE TREASURY

FREE STATE TREASURY

GAUTENG TREASURY

KWAZULUNATAL

TREASURY

LIMPOPO TREASURY

MPUMALANGA TREASURY

NORTHERN CAPE

TREASURY

NORTHERN CAPE

TREASURY

WESTERN CAPE

TREASURY

EASTERN CAPE PED

FREE STATE PED

GAUTENG PED

KWAZULUNATAL PED

LIMPOPO PED

MPUMALANGA PED

NORTHERN CAPE PED

NORTHERN CAPE PED

WESTERN CAPE PED

NCOP

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES

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ENGAGING WITH THE BUDGET PROCESS There are numerous opportunities for members of the public ? either as individuals, or collectively through a non-governmental organisation or community organisation ? to engage and provide input into the budget process. Figure 2.1 on the previous page and Figure 2.2 on the next page should assist those interested to find the stakeholders and documents they need to analyse and engage with the basic education budget process.

THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH THE BASIC EDUCATION BUDGET PROCESS, INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING:

? Make written or oral submissions or petitions in any of the official languages of South Africa to the parliamentary committees of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

? Request MPs to ask questions on your behalf in the parliamentary committees and in the weekly sessions to the executive

? Participate in public hearings on the budget organised by national and provincial treasuries

? Make a contribution to the `Alternative Budget Speech', which is developed by civil society organisations in the months prior to the official budget speech

? Lobby the DBE and/or PEDs on their budget submissions, as well as on their performance and the spending of their budgets

? Submit `Budget Tips' to the Minister of Finance by visiting .za

? Visit before the Budget Speech to vote for what you would like to see in the budget, and after the budget speech to vote for what you liked and didn't like about the budget, and submit comments directly to the Appropriations Committee in parliament

? At the school level, join the school governing body (SGB) to participate in the budgeting and spending of funds allocated for the school.

The chart on the next page shows that while the budget process is complicated, involves many different stakeholders, and goes on throughout the year, there are some key opportunities for the public to provide input into the basic education budget.

Information about issues in basic education funding can also be brought to the Financial and Fiscal Commission. By doing so, members of the public can highlight corruption and misspent funds, or schools that were not built despite funds being allocated for this in the budget.

Whatever the reason for providing input into the budget process, government must listen; by using these opportunities, members of the public can help the government decide what is working and what isn't working in basic education, and therefore what its budget priorities should be.

44 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

Figure 2.2: Timeline of the basic education budget process and where the public can provide input

JUNE

>>NT sends MTEF guidelines to DBE.

Pre-budget bilateral meetings between NT and the DBE reflecting on the previous year's process, the current year's process, and general expectations. DBE and PEDs begin to formulate their budget submissions (how much money they want, and for what activities).

JULY

>>DBE and Provincial Treasuries make their first budget submissions to NT & Cabinet Lekgotla on the budget takes place.

Opportunity for public input. Lobbying conducted prior to July could have an impact on what the DBE and PEDs include in their budget submissions.

EARLY AUGUST

>>Mincombud approves preliminary fiscal framework and division of revenue and sectoral budget priorities.

>>Formal functional MTECs meet to discuss expenditure priorities.

MID AUGUST

>>MTEC discussions and 10x10s start.

Treasury presents the new budget environment / All reflect on previous year's performance (financial and nonfinancial) / DPME input on NDP Outcome 1 Agreement for Basic Education / 10x10 for the Basic Education Sector established.

AUGUST

>>10x10s continue

The 10x10 discusses basic educationsector performance (expenditure and outputs, value for money and NDP Outcome 1 Agreement); opportunities for reprioritisation of resources or activities; funding pressures and options for resourcing those; new policy initiatives and options for resourcing those.

LATE AUGUST

>>MTEC presents recommendations to the 10x10 group. 10x10 identifies risks and opportunities, and collectively agrees on priority issues.

Guided by the NDP, MTEF and Portfolio Committee Reports. Opportunity for public input: Submissions to the Committees of the National Assembly & NCOP

SEPTEMBER

>>MTECs and 10x10s end. >>DBE and Provincial Treasuries

make their revised budget submissions and submit chapters for the Adjustments Estimates

The revised submission is in line with the recommendations of MTEC and agreements of the 10x10. Opportunity for public input: Submissions to the Committees of the National Assembly & NCOP

OCTOBER

>>Adjustments Appropriation Bill, Amended Division of Revenue Bill and MTBPS are tabled in parliament by the Minister of Finance.

NOVEMBER

>>NT issues guidelines to DBE and Provinces for their Estimates of Expenditure.

Parliamentary Committees publish Budgetary Review and Recommendations Reports. Opportunity for public input: Submissions to the Committees of the National Assembly & NCOP

DECEMBER

>>DBE and Provincial Treasuries finalise MTEF and Expenditure Estimates.

JANUARY

>>Final allocation letters sent by NT to DBE and Provincial Treasuries.

FEBRUARY

>>The President outlines the government's priorities for the year in the mid-February State of the Nation Address (SONA).

>>In the last week of February the budget is tabled by the Finance Minister outlining how these priorities will be financed in the budget speech. The national budget includes the Division of Revenue Bill and the Appropriation Bill.

Opportunity for public input: 1. Visit .za and go to `Budget Tips'. 2. Visit before the Budget Speech to vote for what you would like to see in the budget, and after the budget speech to vote for what you liked and didn't like about the budget, and submit comments directly to the Appropriations Committee in parliament.

MARCH

>>MECs for Finance make their Budget Speeches to Provincial Legislatures on the Provincial Budget, which includes an Appropriation Bill and Estimates of Provincial Revenue and Expenditure (EPRE).

MARCH ? APRIL

>>Parliamentary Committees hold hearings on the Budget Vote.

The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education asks the DBE whether it fulfilled its promises from the previous year's budget, and what it plans to achieve from the current budget. Opportunity for public input: Submissions to the Portfolio Committees of the National Assembly and NCOP

JULY

>>The National Assembly and NCOP vote to pass the final budget into law through the Appropriation Act and Division of Revenue Act (DORA).

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Once the provincial treasuries and education departments, and National Treasury and the DBE and other stakeholders involved in the budget process ? including the public ? have deliberated and finally decided how much money will be required and allocated for basic education, and what it will be spent on, the Finance Minister will have a figure for the total basic education budget.

Once all the other national, provincial and local government departments have done the same, a final budget for the whole of government can be prepared by the Finance Minister to present to parliament. The remainder of this section will look at the key divisions of this revenue that are established by the budget process and formalised in the Division of Revenue Act and the Appropriation Act.

RAISING REVENUE (INCOME) FOR THE GOVERNMENT Government revenue is collected mainly by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and is kept in the National Revenue Fund (the government's bank account). Government revenue consists of: ? Taxes: including personal and

corporate income tax, dividends tax, and value-added tax (VAT) ? Duties: including transfer duties and customs and excise duties ? Levies: including the skills development levy, fuel levy and electricity levy ? Mineral royalties.

The amount of revenue (or income) the government collects is affected by many things, including economic activity and

growth (measured in Gross Domestic Product, or GDP), the amount of trade South Africa has with other countries, and the amount of investment in the economy. When GDP is growing and trade is good, more revenue should be collected and available for the government to spend on anything from providing health care to basic education.

When economic performance is not so good, the government will collect less revenue, due to the decrease is economic activity. This may result in government's spending plans being higher than the revenue it expects to receive. This is known as a budget deficit.

When there is a high budget deficit, the government will have to make difficult choices about its revenue raising and spending plans. It may decide to reduce its spending by making cuts to services, or to move funds around by cutting some areas of spending and adding to other areas.

Government could also raise taxes, to try to collect more revenue and therefore avoid cuts. Or it could try to borrow money from banks and other financial institutions, both in and outside South Africa. It could also try to `stimulate' the economy by lowering interest rates (to increase borrowing and spending by consumers) or by printing money (to stimulate spending).

In reality, government will usually respond to a decrease in revenue by trying more than one of these options. In all cases, government must do everything it can to maintain and progressively increase social spending in areas such as basic education, in order to fulfil its constitutional obligations.

THE EQUITABLE DIVISION OF REVENUE BETWEEN THE THREE SPHERES OF GOVERNMENT Section 40(1) of the Constitution establishes that `government is constituted as national, provincial and local spheres of government which are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated'.

The principle of co-operative government is established in Section 41 of the Constitution, and requires that the three spheres work together to provide effective government for the people.

The Constitution also sets out the distinctive features and functions of each sphere of government. This includes functional areas in which a single sphere is responsible (for example, only the National Assembly can amend the Constitution, and only under special circumstances, while only provincial governments can issue liquor licences).

While some functional areas are limited to one sphere of government, many overlap with other spheres.

When both national and provincial governments are responsible for a functional area, this is known as a concurrent function. Basic education is a good example of a concurrent function, because it is managed, overseen and implemented at both the national and provincial levels (or spheres) of government.

The budgeting process for basic education therefore involves both national stakeholders such as the DBE and National Treasury, and provincial stakeholders such as PEDs and Provincial Treasuries.

This is important to note, because the first major division of the government's

46 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

revenue is between the three spheres of government: national, provincial and local. This is known as the vertical division of revenue. Each year, the Minister of Finance presents a Division of Revenue Bill in the budget speech, which once passed by parliament becomes the Division of Revenue Act. This Act gives effect to the division of revenue among the three spheres, as per Section 214(1) of the Constitution.

Section 241(2) of the Constitution requires further that the Division of Revenue Act (DORA) can only be enacted after provincial governments, organised local government via the South

African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the Financial and Fiscal Commission have been consulted and their recommendations considered.

The amount of money that is divided between and distributed directly (as a `direct charge' against the national revenue fund) to the three spheres of government is known as each sphere's equitable share.

In 2016/17, the national department's equitable share was R855 billion (65% of the total), while the provincial equitable share was R411 billion (31% of the total), and the local government equitable share was R53 billion (4% of the total). However, while these equitable shares are

transferred directly to the three spheres, a large portion of the national department's share includes South Africa's debt service costs and conditional grants that are paid to provinces and municipalities.

When presenting the vertical division of revenue, it is therefore useful to separate the amount of revenue that is actually reserved for the payment of the national debt and conditional grants, as this cannot be spent on anything else by the national departments. When these transfers are accounted for, one can see what national, provincial and local governments are actually able to spend on providing goods and services such as basic education.

Table 2.2: Vertical division of revenue raised nationally among the three spheres of government (including equitable share allocations, conditional grants, general fuel levy sharing with metros and debt service costs), 2012/13 ? 2016/17

R BILLION / % OF TOTAL National departments

Percentage share Provinces

Percentage share of which Equitable share Conditional grants Local government Percentage share of which Equitable share Conditional grants General fuel-levy sharing with metros Debt service costs Percentage share Total government expenditure

2012/13 420 43.5% 381 39.5% 311 70 76 7.9% 37 30 9 88 9.1% 965

2013/14 453 43.3% 411 39.2% 336 74 83 7.9% 39 34 10 101 9.7% 1048

2014/15 490 43.3% 440 38.8% 360 80 88 7.7% 42 36 10 115 10.1% 1132

2015/16 547 43.8% 472 37.8% 387 85 100 8.0% 51 38 11 129 10.4% 1247

2016/17 560 42.5% 500 37.9% 411 89 105 8.0% 53 41 11 148 11.2% 1318

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Table 1 shows how much of the total government budget is spent by national departments, provincial government, local government and on debt-service costs. This table shows that in recent years, rising debt-service costs have had a negative impact on the percentage of the budget allocated to the national and provincial spheres in particular.

While debt costs constituted 9.1% of the total budget in 2012/13, by 2016/17 this had increased to 11.2%. Meanwhile, the share going to national departments dropped from 43.5% to 42.5%, and the share going to the provinces dropped from 39.5% to 37.9% during the same period. The share going to local government has been relatively stable.

As basic education is a concurrent function between the national DBE and PEDs, funding for basic education is provided from both the provincial equitable share (around 90% of the total basic education budget) and the national equitable share (the remaining 10%). Any decrease in the national and provincial equitable shares as a percentage of total government expenditure is therefore likely to put pressure on basic education funding.

1. THE NATIONAL EQUITABLE SHARE, INCLUDING CONDITIONAL GRANTS

The national share pays for all the functions and activities of national departments and debt-service costs, as well as conditional grants, which are transferred to the provinces. Conditional grants are funds that National Treasury allocates to the national departments to pay for specific programmes and activities that will be implemented by the provinces and local government.

2. THE PROVINCIAL EQUITABLE SHARE The provincial equitable share is the main source of revenue for provinces, and must cover all of the functions and activities of provincial governments. Over 90% of education spending by the provinces is based on equitable share funding. In addition to the equitable share, provinces receive conditional grants from national departments which allow them to undertake further activities, as determined by National Treasury, in conjunction with relevant national departments. However, provinces decide how they will spend their equitable share allocation. This explains why conditional grants are used by national government: it gives it more control and oversight over certain functions carried out by the provinces, as these funds are provided conditionally on their undertaking of specific programmes and activities.

THE DETERMINATION OF EACH PROVINCE'S EQUITABLE SHARE OF THE PROVINCIAL SPHERE'S SHARE OF REVENUE The provincial equitable share is further divided `horizontally' between the nine provinces. This is known as the horizontal division of revenue. The determination of each province's share of the provincial sphere's share of revenue follows a formula called the equitable share formula. This formula is designed to divide these funds equitably between the provinces, based on criteria established by Section 214(2) of the Constitution:

(b) t he need to ensure that the provinces are able to provide basic services and perform the functions allocated to them;

(f) developmental and other needs of the provinces;

(g) e conomic disparities within and among the provinces.

The equitable-share formula devised by National Treasury consists of six separate components, which aim to divide revenue among the provinces equitably based on the above criteria. ? Education component (weighted:

48%), based equally on the size of the school-age population in each province, and the number of learners enrolled in public ordinary schools ? Health component (weighted 27%) based on province's risk profile and health-system case load ? Basic component (weighted 16%) derived from each province's share of the national population ? Institutional component (weighted 5%) divided equally between the provinces ? Poverty component (weighted 3%) distributed progressively, based on the number of people living in each province who fall in the lowest 40% of household incomes ? Economic output component (weighted 1%) distributed regressively, based on regional GDP.

At 48%, the education component therefore determines 48% of each province's share. This means that in 2016/17, 48% of the R411 billion allocated to the provinces ? R197 billion ? was divided among the provinces based on the number of learners in each province.

EDUCATION FUNDING UNDER THE EQUITABLE SHARE FORMULA: NOT SO EQUITABLE However, the equitable share formula does not necessarily result in an equitable share of revenue among the provinces. Table 2 shows how the provincial equitable share was divided among the provinces in 2016/17.

48 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

Table 2.3: Actual equitable share allocations and amounts allocated to education (PEDs) in 2016/17

2016/17 PROVINCE AND (POVERTY RANKING)

TOTAL EQUITABLE

SHARE ALLOCATION (R MILLION)

OF WHICH, ALLOCATED

TO EDUCATION

Limpopo (1)

48 709

24 635

Eastern Cape (2)

58 060

28 207

North West (3)

28 062

12 824

Mpumalanga (4)

33 450

16 234

KwaZulu-Natal (5) 87 898

41 905

Free State (6)

22 995

10 693

Northern Cape (7) 10 863

4 769

Gauteng (8)

79 600

36 857

Western Cape (9)

41 062

17 455

Total / average

410 699 193 580

% OF EQUITABLE

SHARE ALLOCATED

TO EDUCATION

50.6% (1)

48.6% (2)

45.7% (7)

48.5% (3)

47.7% (4)

46.5% (5)

43.9% (8)

46.3% (6)

42.5% (9)

47.1%

SHARE OF LEARNERS

IN SA 13.7% 15.2% 6.4% 8.4% 22.5% 5.3% 2.3% 17.6% 8.6% 100%

SHARE OF TOTAL

PROVINCIAL EDUCATION EXPENDITURE

LEARNERS AS A % OF PROVINCE'S

TOTAL POPULATION

EQUITABLE SHARE

ALLOCATION TO

EDUCATION PER LEARNER

2015 MATRIC

PASS RATE RANKING

12.7%

28.2% (2) R14 058 (9)

7

14.6%

24.3% (5) R14 473 (8)

9

6.6%

17.0% (9) R15 771 (4) 4

8.4%

26.3% (3) R15 068 (6) 5

21.6%

30.6% (1) R14 575 (7)

8

5.5%

25.1% (4) R15 695 (5) 3

2.5%

24.2% (6) R16 488 (1) 6

19.0%

21.9% (7) R16 400 (2) 2

9.0%

17.7% (8) R15 944 (3) 1

100%

23.3%

R15 148

-

Note that: ? The two poorest provinces ?

Limpopo and Eastern Cape ? have the lowest education allocations per learner (R14 058 and R14 473) ? Together with KwaZulu-Natal, these provinces share of total provincial education expenditure is less than their share of SA's learners ? Conversely, Gauteng and Western Cape have a higher share of total provincial education expenditure than their share

of SA's learners, and among the highest education allocations per learner.

How is this possible?

1. GETTING THE NUMBERS RIGHT Determining the formula is a complex exercise and there are a range of issues that need to be considered. First, the education portion of the equitable share is based on the average between the cohort of 5-17 year olds and the number

of enrolled learners in each province. However, while school enrolment numbers are updated each year, the age cohort of 5-17 year olds has not been updated since the 2011 census, and is therefore out of date. Including these out of date age cohort numbers results in skewed effects. For example, the formula underestimates the number of learners in most provinces (especially EC, LP and KZN) and overestimates the number of learners in the Western Cape.

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49

2. THE FORMULA NEEDS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE UNEQUAL COST OF PROVIDING EDUCATION IN RURAL AND URBAN SETTINGS, THE PROPORTION OF SCHOOLS IN EACH PROVINCE THAT ARE CLASSIFIED AS POOR (QUINTILES 1 TO 3), AND THE RELATIVE BURDEN OF POVERTY AND UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT IN EACH PROVINCE.

The current equitable share formula has thus resulted in the poorest provinces spending more of their provincial equitable shares on education than richer provinces, but still ending up spending less per learner. This is problematic for two further reasons.

QUALITY EDUCATION IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO PROVIDE IN RURAL COMPARED TO URBAN SETTINGS As well as being provinces with high percentages of people living in poverty, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and KwaZuluNatal are also among the most rural. It is more expensive to provide quality education in rural areas than it is in urban areas. This is for several reasons, including: ? Urban areas benefit from `economies

of scale', which means that a wider

variety of goods and services are produced and made available, and are therefore easier to find and cheaper to procure. It is therefore generally cheaper to build and maintain schools and procure the goods and services necessary for providing education in urban areas (such as water and sanitation, books and textbooks, furniture, IT equipment, and internet access, among others) ? There are also cost benefits to the higher population density and smaller geographical space of urban areas, because the closer that learners, teachers and schools are to each other, the less expensive it is to get them together for the purposes of schooling. For example, funding scholar transport in rural areas is an ongoing problem that is not accounted for in the equitable share formula.

For a variety of reasons (which will be looked at in the next section), there are also more teachers trained in the urban parts of the country, and these parts therefore tend to have more qualified teachers. These teachers are more likely to want to teach in the urban areas where they were trained, which

means that schools in urban areas have a higher range of qualified teachers to choose from than rural areas.

One way of getting teachers to teach in more rural areas would be to provide them with a financial incentive to do so, but no extra funding for this is included in the equitable share formula.

THE IMPERATIVE OF REDRESS REQUIRES MORE FUNDING FOR POORER PROVINCES AND SCHOOLS THAN RICHER ONES The formula also does not take into account the unequal starting points of historically disadvantaged and under-funded schools.

More rural provinces such as the Eastern Cape have a higher number of schools that were under-resourced during apartheid, and therefore require more funds now for building new or renovating inadequate schools. Improving school infrastructure, such as providing libraries or sports facilities to the many schools that currently lack these, is expensive; but the equitable share formula does not account for this.

Although conditional grants have been allocated in recent years to tackle

50 Basic Education Rights Handbook ? Education Rights in South Africa ? Chapter 2: Funding Basic Education

backlogs in school infrastructure, these make up a very small portion of provincial spending compared to the equitable share, and have experienced a number of implementation problems (see chapter 12 of this book).

3. TOWARDS A MORE EQUITABLE SHARE FORMULA FOR EDUCATION In order for education to be transformed, South Africa needs a more progressive funding model that provides relatively more funding to poorer and more rural provinces.

Under such a model, poorer and more rural provinces, and provinces with historical backlogs in relation to trained teachers and school infrastructure, would have more education funds available per learner than richer and more urban provinces. Under the present formula, the opposite is the case.

At only 3% of the total, the weighting given to the poverty component in the equitable-share formula is insufficient to reduce the inequality that exists due to the demographic, economic and geographical differences between the provinces. In 2016/17, 3% of the provincial equitable share amounted to about

R12 billion; a relatively small amount, which ? even if distributed progressively (i.e. a higher share to the poorer provinces) ? would not have a significant impact on poverty and inequality within or between the provinces.

The National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF), discussed in the next section of this chapter, do take into account some of the above factors, and are therefore a more redistributive funding mechanism than the equitable share formula. The same is largely true of conditional grants made to provinces.

However, the NNSSF and conditional grants affect only 10 to 20% of total education funding (the remaining 80-90% is equitable share and personnel funding, which is also not significantly progressive or redistributive), which means that however redistributive the NNSSF are, they cannot fundamentally reduce disparities between poorer and richer schools.

Also, by the time each school's funding allocation based on the NNSSF is calculated, the total provincial equitable share has already been determined based on a formula that doesn't take the need for redistribution and the achievement of equity and equality between schools and provinces that much into account.

So, even if a province really wanted to equalise schooling inputs and outcomes ? for example, by making significant extra investments into poorer public schools ? its ability to do so is limited by the fact that its main budget is based on an equitableshare formula that hasn't taken this consideration significantly into account.

There are at least two things the government can do to achieve a more equitable share formula for education: 1. National Treasury and the Department

of Basic Education should analyse the cost differences of providing education in rural and urban settings, and adjust the formula accordingly. 2. Treasury should increase the weighting given to the poverty component of the formula, so that provinces with a higher share of their population living in poverty receive relatively more funds. This is necessary to reduce inequality within and between the provinces , as the Constitution requires..

Until these issues with the formula are addressed, the current high levels of inequality between wealthier provinces, schools and learners and those that are less well-resourced will be difficult to overcome.

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